Central parts of Australia's largest city will enter a second lockdown on Saturday. [Source: BBC]
Sydney’s central and eastern suburbs, including Bondi Beach, will be locked down after a jump in COVID cases.
The city is battling to contain an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.
Officials reported 17 new cases on Friday, taking the cluster to 65 cases.
It is the first lockdown in Australia’s largest city – home to 5.3 million people – this year.
It will affect the city centre, inner-city suburbs, as well as beachside suburbs in the east.
From Saturday, residents as well as people who work in the affected areas have to stay at home except for essential reasons. The lockdown will be enforced until 2 July.
Residents in the virus hotspots had already been banned from travelling out of the city. Other Australian states and territories have also blocked arrivals from Sydney.
